Peter Lougheed

If you're surprised by reports Jason Kenney’s Progressive Conservative leadership campaign is treating the rules of the party he wants to lead with contempt, you haven't really been paying attention.

The behaviour that resulted in PC Party officials -- who more than anything else want to be able to present a happy and unified PC face to the province -- publicly levying a $5,000 fine against the former Harper cabinet minister's campaign is intrinsic to this effort to "unite the right."

Today is the fifth anniversary of the day the wheels fell off the Tory bus.

That is to say, today is the fifth anniversary of the day Alison Redford was sworn into office as Alberta’s 14th premier, the leader who was supposed to renew the Progressive Conservative Party one more time -- as Ed Stelmach, Ralph Klein and Don Getty before her had all been meant to do in their time.

Jim Prentice was supposed to play the same role too, but by then, notwithstanding his own blunders, it may have been too late.

So all this means that yesterday was the last day steady old Eddie, Unlucky Premier No. 13, was at the wheel of Alberta's PC bus, and while it may have needed a coat of paint and a new set of spark plugs, it was still a perfectly serviceable vehicle.

Rachel Notley's decision yesterday to make support for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's plan put a national price on carbon conditional on getting a pipeline approved reveals something important about Alberta's premier: just how tough she is.

Right-wing opposition parties have been screaming for a long time that Notley is too agreeable, and that her idea Alberta should seek social license by trying not to be an environmental pariah will never work, can never work, and is only evidence of weakness. They've said it enough times it's started to take on a patina of truth.

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Today is the 45th anniversary of Peter Lougheed's historic election victory in 1971, which brought the Progressive Conservative Party to power with a comfortable majority, where it more or less remained with the general approval of Albertans until May 5, 2015.

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Will Grant Hunter, the Wildrose Opposition's labour critic, apologize to Alberta's New Democrats for his intemperate accusation Wednesday that the Notley government is in bed with the province's largest union because of a sensible practice that dates back to when Alison Redford was premier?